Man falls from top of moving vehicle

Car surfing — it’s become a form of entertainment for young adults and may cost a 20-year-old Greeley man his life.

Jose Garcia was in critical care Saturday evening with brain damage after falling off the top of a moving car in Evans. Garcia’s mother, Guadalupe Gonzalez, said doctors have told her to be prepared for the worst.

“His brain is swelling,” Gonzalez said. “They’re just trying to keep him in neutral.”

Officers responded to a report of an automobile/pedestrian accident in the 2900 block of Skyline Avenue about midnight, Evans police spokesman George Roosevelt said, but didn’t find anyone there.

At 12:40 a.m., they received a call from North Colorado Medical Center that Garcia was there with a critical head injury.

Garcia isn’t the first to be critically injured while car surfing. Geraldo Perez Jr. lapsed in a coma after he fell off a car in Evans on May 16. He was riding on the running boards of a sport utility vehicle.

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Car surfing is becoming more prevalent as a form of entertainment, Roosevelt said.

About a dozen people, including two of Garcia’s brothers, were playing the dangerous game on Saturday. They drove Garcia to NCMC at about 12:30 a.m. and said he was struck by a hit-and-run driver.

Gonzalez received a call about what happened from her 18-year-old son, Pedro Garcia. She said she knew something didn’t make sense about her son’s story.

The youngest of her six children, who is 11 years old, asked why his brother’s legs weren’t injured if he was hit by a car. Then doctors told her the injuries weren’t consistent with what they were told had happened. Also, police found Garcia’s wallet, bandanna and blood about 200 yards from where the accident happened.

Gonzalez said she already knew what police later confirmed by her son’s body language and withdrawal — that he was hiding something. She said she always feared the police would knock on her door to tell her one of her children was dead.

“Because you were having fun, look where your brother’s at,” Gonzalez said to her sons. “You say you’re hanging out, but what is ‘hanging out?’ “

Her son had just graduated from Rite of Passage, an 18-month boot camp he attended because of crimes he committed as a juvenile. Garcia was turning his life around, she said. He learned about various trades while at the boot camp, including construction.

He was waiting for a permit to begin a framing project in someone’s home, Gonzalez said.

The driver of the car from which Garcia fell, 18-year-old Daniel Hector Garcia, was arrested for vehicular assault, Roosevelt said. That could be changed to felony vehicular homicide if Garcia doesn’t survive. Hector is being held at Weld County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Vehicular homicide is a fair charge if her son dies, Gonzalez said.

“I don’t want to sound mean, but it has to stop. Who knows who is going to be next,” she said.